Guatemala’s Cuatro Caminos is an important intersection in the Central American nation’s western “Altiplano,” its mountainous highlands. Depending on which of the directions you take from Cuatro Caminos – west to Quetzaltengo, north to Heuhuetenango, or east to Totonicapán – […]

Canada has celebrated its founding as a country since July 1, 1867, but it wasn’t until 1927, almost 60 years later, that it was first recognized as an independent state. That’s because our colonial overlord in London still controlled our […]

  Moments of crisis inevitably provide a revealing glimpse of a person’s true strength of character. Whatever else one may think of newly elected Quebec Premier Pauline Marois (and I’ve never been a fan of her personality, politics or leadership […]

Is there a form of Quebec nationalism that can truly embrace all Quebecers, of whatever origin or mother tongue? Could there be a movement that could actually convince large numbers of les autres – the other “nous” – to actually […]

I said goodbye to a close friend last week. No, no one died. This friend is a piece of land about nine acres large on the flank of a small mountain running down to a tiny lake, centred around a […]

  Quebec will soon be facing a crucial provincial election, likely sooner than later, and probably early this autumn. As in any election campaign, a well-organized party will deploy a two-fold strategy of negative attacks against its opponents combined with […]

Throughout my neighbourhood in east-end Montreal this evening at exactly 8 pm, people stepped out onto their doorsteps or walked around the block banging pots and pans. This activity carried on for about 15 to 20 minutes all over the […]

  I’ve threatened my big sister that I am going to rename this column with the title above. (My editor – hi W*ll! – warned me I would have to use an asterisk for the “i” if I were to […]

The contradictions are what make us interesting. The person who sends a yearly cheque to PETA, the purist animal-rights group, but who still loves to dig into a thick, juicy steak. The business owner who supports higher taxes and encourages […]

I must be a bad parent. A couple weeks ago, on March 22, I let my son skip school and then encouraged him to get into a fight. A real battle royale it was, in fact, in which we fought […]